Forming tools enable laminates of constituent material (e.g., carbon fiber) to be shaped into any of a variety of geometric shapes before they are cured into a composite part. Forming tools may also be utilized during curing of a laminate to ensure that the laminate does not deform or otherwise change shape while exposed to temperature and pressure (e.g., 350 degrees Fahrenheit and 90 pounds per square inch (PSI) of pressure from an autoclave).
While forming tools help to ensure that a laminate achieves a desired shape, certain part and tool geometries result in divergence of tows/plies of a laminate. If a laminate is stretched and shaped by a forming tool after lay-up in a manner that causes divergence, the resulting composite part may exhibit buckling and wrinkling at the location where the divergence was created. This in turn is undesirable in a composite part.